Author: Jeremy Botter

B.J. Penn vs. Josh Koscheck Would Be an Awesome UFC on FOX Main Event

I don’t know if the following is true. You never really know if Josh Koscheck is telling the truth or playing some kind of angle in order to secure a big fight.He’s a brilliant businessman, and that’s what brilliant businessmen do: They set up ways to …

I don’t know if the following is true. You never really know if Josh Koscheck is telling the truth or playing some kind of angle in order to secure a big fight.

He’s a brilliant businessman, and that’s what brilliant businessmen do: They set up ways to add more cheese to their personal checking account.

Regardless, here’s what Koscheck said on Twitter late last night: 

As of this writing, there’s been no response from Penn’s camp. We don’t even know if Koscheck is telling the truth. 

But I can’t help but imagine that Penn vs. Koscheck would be a pitch-perfect main event for the next UFC on FOX show in August. That’s the card currently headlined by Brian Stann vs. Hector Lombard, but the ratings disaster of the Jim Miller/Nathan Diaz-headlined FOX show earlier this month might just have the UFC hedging their bets and attempting to put together a bigger main event.

It makes perfect sense from every conceivable angle. Both fighters are coming off losses to notable contenders. Both guys are huge names with the dependable hardcore fanbase, but more importantly they’re names that the casual fan will know.

Sure, they’re coming off losses in their last fight, but that doesn’t really matter when it comes to network television. On FOX, you’re trying to broaden the scope of your typical audience by giving them names they recognize in a main event and then building to that main event with consistent advertising in the weeks leading to the fight. 

Neither Penn nor Koscheck may ever sniff a title shot again. But I’m not sure they care, to be honest, and it doesn’t really matter where they stand in the rankings.

The audience the UFC needs to attract does not care about rankings or losses or title shots—they only care when they’re given a reason to care, when they see that someone they’ve heard of is fighting. 

That’s what Penn and Koscheck offer. It’s the perfect fight for FOX, and I hope it happens.

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UFC on Fuel 3 Results: Dustin Poirier’s Emotional Post-Fight Interview

Dustin Poirier’s evening at UFC on Fuel 3 didn’t quite go as planned. Poirier was a heavy favorite going into his main event bout with Chan Sung Jung, and many—I’ll include myself in that group—believed that Poirier was going to walk t…

Dustin Poirier’s evening at UFC on Fuel 3 didn’t quite go as planned. 

Poirier was a heavy favorite going into his main event bout with Chan Sung Jung, and many—I’ll include myself in that group—believed that Poirier was going to walk through Jung without a care in the world. I thought he was too skilled and too technical for Jung, and I figured it was an easy win for the Louisiana native that would set up a future title shot.

Instead, it was Jung who used the fight to break away from the pack and earn himself a title shot, triggering a wave of Zombie-mania that may not subside until he faces Jose Aldo for the featherweight title.

Poirier was understandably upset during his post-fight interview with Ariel Helwani, which you can watch in the above video:

I’m trying not to get emotional, I just care so much and I let myself down. I deserved to win. My wife deserved for us to win. I felt like I was in the best shape ever, I just took some bad shots and made some mistakes. I’m gonna go back to the gym and work on it and come back and get a W.

The loss to Jung is a step in the wrong direction, but Poirier still has a lot to offer at featherweight. I do believe he’s going to be a future title contender, and I believe it’ll happen in the next 18 months. He made plenty of mistakes against Jung, but he’s young and has a lot of time to close up those holes in his game.

What’s next for Poirier? I’d like to see him face the loser of the July bout between Jose Aldo and Erik Koch. I say that mostly because the loser will likely be Koch, and I’ve been waiting to see Poirier and Koch square off for a long time. We were supposed to see the fight go down at UFC 143, but Koch suffered an injury and was forced to pull out.

Poirier won’t tumble too far down the featherweight ladder. The division is thin on potential stars, and Poirier’s one of the only guys in the division with main event experience under his belt. He’s also the star of Fightville, a critically-acclaimed documentary that you need to see if you haven’t done so already.

I expect Poirier to learn from this loss, to rebound and be better than before. If that happens, he can consider the loss to Jung—no matter how heart-wrenching it may feel right now—a positive experience.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Dana White’s Night as a UFC Fan Was Pretty Awesome

Last night’s UFC on Fuel show will be one of those cards that I’ll remember fondly for a long time, and not just because of the awesome main event between Dustin Poirier and The Korean Zombie.No; I’ll remember last night because it marked the first tim…

Last night’s UFC on Fuel show will be one of those cards that I’ll remember fondly for a long time, and not just because of the awesome main event between Dustin Poirier and The Korean Zombie.

No; I’ll remember last night because it marked the first time since Zuffa bought the company that Dana White did not attend the event. White, in case you haven’t heard, was scheduled to undergo surgery this morning after being diagnosed with Ménière’s disease.

It’s a condition that occurs when fluid in the inner ear gets too high, causing dizziness and balance. White told Yahoo’s Kevin Iole that he was meeting with the Fertitta brothers on Tuesday at their Red Rock casino property when the medical issues hit him hard, and he left the casino in a wheelchair.

And so, instead of attending the event in Virginia, as he usually does, White watched the fight card from home on television. And, like every other UFC fan in the world, he tweeted his thoughts on the show as it unfolded.

He was clearly unhappy with the lack of fighter walkouts:

 

 

@ChilledT5 is UFC senior producer Craig Borsari, and @LorenzoFertitta is obviously Zuffa CEO Lorenzo Fertitta.

White also admitted that the fight between Donald Cerrone and Jeremy Stephens should have been the co-main event instead of the boring Armi Sadollah vs. Jorge Lopez bout:

 

 

Before he crashed out for the night—well before his usual 4 a.m. daily bedtime, I must add—White chimed in with his thoughts on the incredible main event performance by Chan Sung Jung:

 

 

All of these tweets add up to one conclusion: While he may be the president and public face of the biggest fight promotion in the world, White is also a fan of the sport and of his own product.

I’ve said it countless times before, but I’ll say it again. White’s willingness to interact with fans on a personal basis via Twitter must be commended. There are plenty of times when he says something he probably shouldn’t, but I’d prefer to take the good with the bad.

White tweeting in real-time about an event while watching from home? That’s definitely a good thing.

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Melvin Guillard Says He’s Going to Be the UFC Lightweight Champion

Melvin Guillard may lack any semblance of a real jiu-jitsu game, but one thing he doesn’t lack is confidence.The charismatic lightweight is riding a two-fight losing streak to Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller. Both losses came by rear-naked choke, and both ha…

Melvin Guillard may lack any semblance of a real jiu-jitsu game, but one thing he doesn’t lack is confidence.

The charismatic lightweight is riding a two-fight losing streak to Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller. Both losses came by rear-naked choke, and both happened in under three minutes.

You’d think that would cause Guillard to sit back and eat a slice of humble pie, but you’d be wrong. Guillard still thinks he’s going to be lightweight champion: 

“Not really. I’m content with what’s going on. You know you just have to keep working hard and keep training and keep on getting better. The more time I put in it just puts me closer to my goal and that’s being the champion. I believe I can be champion at 155. There’s no point for me to run to another weight class, I’m gonna be champion at 155.”

I like this attitude. After Guillard’s loss to Lauzon, he essentially pretended it never happened, telling the world that he and Miller were the two best lightweights in the world and that he viewed it as a championship fight. He said this after losing his last fight in under one minute. 

And now he’s saying the same kind of things despite losing two in a row. You’ve gotta respect that kind of resolve. And I’m not saying that Guillard can’t be champion, someday; he’s obviously one of the most incredible athletic talents in the sport, with the kind of speed that can wilt just about anyone he faces.

But he’ll never be the champ if he doesn’t take some time and shore up his jiu-jitsu game. And given that we’ve never seen him actually focus on that—he tends to laugh off his submission-defense deficiencies whenever they’re brought up in interviews—I don’t have high hopes that he’ll eventually learn his lesson and do the one thing he needs to do in order to compete with the real top guys in the division.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC on Fuel 3 Results: Five Fights to Make After Zombie vs. Poirier

With a stellar, action-packed UFC on Fuel event in the books, it’s time to turn our eyes toward the future. What’s next for the stars of Fuel 3? Where they do go from here? Some of them inched closer to relevance, and at least one turned himself i…

With a stellar, action-packed UFC on Fuel event in the books, it’s time to turn our eyes toward the future. 

What’s next for the stars of Fuel 3? Where they do go from here? Some of them inched closer to relevance, and at least one turned himself into a bona-fide pay-per-view attraction in a single fight. 

Let’s take a look at five fights I’d like to see coming out of Tuesday’s show in Virginia.

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UFC on Fuel 3 Results: The Real Winners and Losers

UFC on Fuel cards don’t get as much attention as their pay-per-view or FOX brethren, but that doesn’t mean they don’t provide several hours worth of top-shelf entertainment.Tuesday night’s card from Fairfax, VA was no different. From the opening-fight …

UFC on Fuel cards don’t get as much attention as their pay-per-view or FOX brethren, but that doesn’t mean they don’t provide several hours worth of top-shelf entertainment.

Tuesday night’s card from Fairfax, VA was no different. From the opening-fight knockout by Tom Lawlor all the way to the action-packed main event with a breakout performance by “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung, the show delivered in spades.

If you missed it, well, that’s your fault. But let’s take a look at the biggest winners and losers from the show anyway.

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